Attorney calls Genoa’s response ‘smoke and mirrors’

Livingston Christian Schools sued Genoa Township after the Board of Trustees denied a special-use permit to Brighton Church of the Nazarene that would have allowed the private Christian school to move into the church.(Photo: GILLIS BENEDICT/LIVINGSTON DAILY)

The private Christian school sued the township after its Board of Trustees denied a special-use permit to the Brighton Church of the Nazarene that would have allowed the school to move into the church this fall.

The suit alleges that the township violated Livingston Christian Schools’ rights under the federal Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act.

He said the township’s response is “designed to obscure the court’s focus on the simple reality that the grounds on which the township board based its decision do not constitute compelling government interests to survive a RLUIPA (Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act) claim.”

He said the board’s “outright denial” of the move “constitutes a substantial burden to the religious-based academic mission of (the school) to operate a Christian pre-K to 12th-grade school to serve the Livingston County community.”

Myers said there is “no indication from the township that it desires to settle” out of court.

However, if U.S. District Court Judge George Caram Steeh grants a temporary restraining order or preliminary injunction at an Aug. 31 hearing, then the school would be allowed to move into the Brighton church while the suit is pending.

“The location of the school at the (Brighton Church of the Nazarene) is essential to that mission,” Myers said.

Myers mentioned another case, Lighthouse Community Church of God v. Southfield, when “the court found that the city’s denial violated” the federal act.

“Likewise, imposing an obligation on (the school) to abandon the facility whose geographical location is critical to its mission and search for an alternative location is not a mere inconvenience and constitutes a substantial burden under” the federal act, Myers said.

He pointed out that the township’s attorney was on the “losing” side of that case.

The Genoa Township board denied the permit after discussing concerns over potential traffic problems and the Brighton Church of the Nazarene’s history of not complying with township’s requirements as well as complaints from neighbors about the church’s skate park, failure to add landscaping as a buffer for neighboring residences and other issues.

Myers said the township’s response “fails to cite a single case — not one — in which a federal court ... has upheld a denial in the face of a RLUIPA challenge on the grounds that either promotion of traffic safety or a demonstrated history of noncompliance with site-plan requirements was in furtherance of a compelling governmental interest and was the least restrictive means of doing so.”

The township’s Planning Commission recommended approval after months of meetings going back to March.

However, “the board chose to completely ignore the (Planning Commission’s) findings and recommendations,” so the school “now finds itself in a timing quandary,” Myers said.

The school “then lost two more weeks because the township board failed to follow its own ordinance requirements for making a decision at the July 20 meetings, so the permit was not formally denied until the Aug. 3 board meeting,” he said.

If it turns out that the school “is forced to occupy an alternative location” while the case is pending, Myers said the school would hold the township “accountable for all such financial consequences upon a final resolution” of the suit.

Contact Livingston Daily county and townships reporter Jennifer Eberbach at 517-548-7148 or at jeberbach@livingstondaily.com. Follow her on Twitter @JenTheWriter.